Trading With The Enemy

The smuggling of illicit cargo and people has played a significant role in shaping the culture as well as the economy of the Southernmost American city of Key West since it’s foundation in 1821.

Previous to the embargo, a myriad of boats made the crossing regularly between Key West and its sister city of Havana. In the early days, it was commonplace for ship captains to keep homing pigeons aboard to relay messages of either safe arrival or distress back to several lofts positioned in Key West, including the Pan Am headquarters, Key West Lighthouse and the US Naval Base.

See You at the Finish Line, Featuring 'TRADING WITH THE ENEMY' at Magnan Metz Gallery, November 1, 2013 - January 11th, 2014.

Despite no hostile actions, Cuba remains the only nation against which the United States upholds the Trading with the Enemy Act. Today, millions of dollars are spent annually on a dual Lockheed Martin 275K aerostat surveillance balloon system and high-speed Department of Homeland Security vessels canvasing the Florida Straight and the waters surrounding Key West.

I spent 4 years planning and eight months breeding and homing a kit of fifty pigeons to a loft I built in Key West. My goal was to prove that pigeons could make the 90-mile flight from Havana back to Key West carrying highly coveted contraband Cuban Cohiba cigars. Eleven returned.

Installation Views

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Trading with the Enemy, Installation, 2013

Trading with the Enemy, Installation, 2013

Trading with the Enemy, Installation, 2013

Trading with the Enemy, Installation, 2013

Trading with the Enemy, Installation, 2013

Trading with the Enemy, Installation, 2013

The Smugglers, 2013

The Filmmakers, 2013

To Have, 2013

Forget Me Not, 2013

And Have Not, 2013

The Fifty Cigar Harnesses Deployed in the First Smuggling Operation, 2013

The Fifty Cigar Harnesses Deployed in the First Smuggling Operation (Detail) 2013

The Fifty Camera Harnesses Deployed in the First Smuggling Operation, 2013

The Fifty Camera Harnesses Deployed in the First Smuggling Operation (Detail), 2013